United States Maritime Expansion across the Pacific during the 19th Century

The westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century was not limited to North America, but rather included an ongoing push to establish a stronger U.S. presence in and across the Pacific Ocean. This maritime expansion, driven mostly by commerce, had important implications for U.S. foreign policy.

The Clipper Ship "Flying Cloud" off the English coast. Painting by James E. Buttersworth. (1859-60)

The appeal of profits to be earned from the China trade served as the initial impetus to motivate U.S. citizens and officials to enter into the Pacific region. China was the source of some of the world’s most sought after commodities—tea, porcelain, and silk—and Western merchants had sought access to this highly lucrative trade since at least the 17th century. Following U.S. independence, U.S.-based merchants continued to seek opportunity in China. In February 1784 the Empress of China became the first ship to sail from the United States to China, and in its wake came a steady flow of merchants in search of wealth. During the first decades of the 19th century, U.S. merchants amassed sizable fortunes that they subsequently invested in the development of their homeland. As this trade grew, U.S. traders built a small outpost in China and their interactions with Chinese subjects became more complex and occasionally contentious. The U.S. Government realized that it had to establish formal diplomatic ties in order to protect the interests of its citizens. In the wake of war between Britain and China, and the subsequent opening of diplomatic relations between those two countries, the United States moved to negotiate its own treaty with the Chinese Government. The resulting agreement, the Treaty of Wangxia, was ratified in 1844, and soon thereafter U.S. ministers and consuls took up residence in China’s capital and port cities.

Guildhall Art Gallery - current exhibitions

Paintings by Trevor Chamberlain(11 May – 26 July 2009)

Guildhall Art Gallery is pleased to be showing new and recent work by Trevor Chamberlain, who first exhibited here in 1970 in the annual Lord Mayor’s Art Award (in which he was a prize winner in 1976). Concentrating mostly on marine subjects, town scenes and landscapes painted en plain air , in both his oils and his watercolours Trevor Chamberlain seeks ‘to create an impression of nature and the spirit and atmosphere of a particular place, rather than a precise representation’. This exhibition of more than a hundred evocative and light-filled oil paintings and watercolours includes London subjects alongside views from as far afield as Armenia, India and Iran. Some works are available for purchase.

Born in Hertford in 1933, Trevor Chamberlain began painting at the age of 7. At 12 he enrolled in painting classes under Alfred Wright at the Ware Institute, but apart from this he had no formal art training. He worked as an architectural draughtsman until 1964, since when he has worked full time as a professional artist. He made his first painting trip abroad to Venice in 1970 and has since painted in every continent except Australia. Chamberlain has exhibited widely in London (including at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions and the Royal Watercolour Society) as well as elsewhere in the UK and overseas, and his works are held by numerous public and private collections. He is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Wapping Group of Artists, of which he has been President, and he is also a Past President of the Chelsea Art Society. He has also published two books on oil painting – Oil Painting Pure and Simple (1987) and Oils (1993) – and one on watercolour – Trevor Chamberlain A Personal View (1999), while sixty years of painting were celebrated in 2006 with the publication of England and Beyond.

'A Breezy Corner' - 1911

The late 18th and 19th centuries saw the development of British marine painting. J.M.W. Turner’s seascapes and experiments with watercolour techniques did much to raise the status of the genre and medium, once considered a poor relation to oils. Indeed, watercolour has an important place in the history of maritime art.

Frederic James Aldridge was one of the best English maritime painters working in watercolour and carried the 19th century tradition into the 20th century. He was based in the village of Findon, near Worthing in Sussex.

Aldridge generally painted Channel scenes and Venetian seascapes to the standard format of calm or storm. This atmospheric picture is typical of his mature work, with its rather loose drawing and predominately brown colouring. Aldridge was also an art dealer and attended Cowes Regatta for 50 consecutive years.

David Crick

David Crick is a self taught artist living in Compton, near Guildford.




















He exhibits marine and landscape paintings at Guildford and Molesey Art Societies, being Vice President of the latter, and also in various galleries in England and overseas.

A lay member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, he has exhibited in the Annual Exhibition in the past and teaches and demonstrates traditional watercolour techniques to art groups.

123 - 'Boats off the Coast, Yarmouth'

He was the oldest son of John Sell Cotman, a painter of the Norwich school who was famous for his watercolours and his architectural engravings. Miles Edmund Cotman was primarily a marine painter with a style which can be described weaker of that of his father but skilful, pleasing and impressive. In 1834 he started teaching painting in Norwich and frequently changed places with his brother John Joseph who was also a painter.

His work, when it represents purely his own thought and execution, though good in drawing and design, does luck freedom and is too prim and precise. In Boats Off the Coast, Yarmouth, one can not help being impressed by the great force that the two boats convey, while above them a sensational light blue sky in contrast with the misty sea, creates an atmospheric result.

John Sell Cotman

The collection of watercolours by John Sell Cotman is outstanding. Cotman’s oeuvre divides into distinguishable periods, all of which are well represented in the collection. These comprise his early Norwich and Greta period work (several with related sketches), which are regarded as some of the finest in the history of watercolour painting (these include the famous Greta Bridge with which he is usually identified); a series of magical brown wash watercolours from his Normandy visits; numerous of his late so-called ‘paste’ medium watercolours in his blue and yellow phase, and a series of velvet brown monochrome watercolours painted on a final visit to Norfolk just before his death. He painted relatively few oils, which are rarely seen outside Norwich. Those in the museum show the complete range, from early family portraits to his final, unfinished painting. The provenances of the majority can be traced back to the artist’s sale or his family. These collections, together with sketches, drawing copies, etchings, personalia, etc, provide a complete picture of the artist and his working and teaching methods.

‘Sea Piece’ by Jan Porcellis

‘Sea Piece’ byJan Porcellis (1584-1632)

Oil on panel

Jan Porcellis specialised in marine paintings. He worked in the cities of Rotterdam, Middelbourg and London. This painting had originally been attributed to the artist Jan Claes Rietschoof, hence the text on the painting’s frame. Presented by Miss Micklethwaite in 1932